It didn't take long before I remembered why I gave it to Jon in the first place.
So the whole deal with this game is that they decided to go in a different direction than previous metroid games. In some ways it's pretty cool, but in other ways it blows. It blows hard.
The main issue I actually feel sympathetic with the game developers for, the story. Video games are similar to movie franchises in that you can only see the same thing so many times before you get bored, but at the same time the fans expect a certain level of familiarity. Some games series like Zelda keep coming out with innovative game controls in hopes that you don't notice that the first item you get will be a boomerang, then bombs, etc etc etc. Other games, like Mario, just offer no explanation and expect you to accept that. The princess got kidnapped again, somehow collecting stars will help, get to it.
With Metroid, the progression of the game depends on upgrades, which is what makes the game so cool. You usually start the game at a pretty central location on the map and then explore and expand outwards as best you can with your blaster and zero suit that you arrived on whatever planet with. As you explore you discover treasures left to you by various sources that allow you to explore further in to areas you couldn't explore before. It's also fun because you have to go back through areas you've already been through except it becomes much easier once you have whatever upgrade it is that you have just gotten. It's extremely satisfying to freeze an alien that you just spent forever blasting to death.
Now in Zelda the explanation is that every game is a new era, every Link is a new hero. This is why he starts the game with nothing and ends with the master sword and whatnot. I guess the creators of "Other M" decided they wanted a logical explanation for why Samus would not have any missiles, ice beams, power bombs, etc.
And I respect them for that, it's ambitious, I just don't really like the direction they went. They decided that for the story of "Other M" Samus would respond to a distress signal on some alien planet. Upon arriving she discovers there are soldiers (who she knows) from some galactic federation who are also there exploring. Samus decides to join forces with them and then (this is where it all falls apart) decides to DISABLE ALL OF HER UPGRADES. I think they try to kind of justify it by saying that her power bombs are just too powerful for her to be allowed to use them around people so for everybody's safety she has to disable them. Why does she have to disable everything else though?! And then the worst part is Adam, the commander of their team. He's the one who allows you to use your upgrades so, for example, you will have been getting beaten to within an inch of your life by some purple beast monster who seriously looked exactly like this:
until finally, when you think you're surely going to die and have to start over, he "authorizes" you to use your ice beam, allowing you to easily beat it. And the impression is that even when Adam isn't in the same room as you he is still watching you on some kind of video surveillance system and then talks to you directly through your helmet. So why does he watch you run for 5 minutes through a lava field full of horrible monsters before he "authorizes" you to use your suit upgrade that allows heat protection?
***SPOILER***
You finally get to use your power bombs at the very end of the game after Adam dies, which is unfortunate because I would have power bombed him to death if I had the chance.
I mean seriously, what happened to bad ass Samus Aran who doesn't take shit from anybody? She's a lone bounty hunter for a reason, as she droned on and on about in the cinematic sequences during "Other M".
I'm obviously so enraged about this that I can't even deal with the other issues of the game. Like the plot holes, oh the plot holes. Who was driving the forklift?!
Now I'm worked up. I need to play Smash Brothers as Samus and beat the shit out of everyone.
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